@miket1m I meant Wiccan, OTO, THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE), church of sub-genius, and even Scientology (though they have a different set of problems) What do you mean by Islamic? They're as bad as bible followers on the average.
So you say That religion itself is the cause of Lets say Chili abuse within church (its just an example), i think its wrong, can you point out ONE part in the bible Where it said That children should be harmed ?, well, on the other hand, many atheists are pro abortion up untill 8 months after fertilisation, talking About child abuse... ?, and do you know the reason why hitler did research on genome science ?, because he wantend to create a perfect spiecies, after hè read Darwins book, he killen
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him -- 21 Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death.
Your understanding of why people attend church is rather narrow, and is spoken like someone who never believed, or hasn't gone in quite some time. I certainly didn't start going to be "like minded" with anybody. Had I not, I'd still be the type of person to subscribe to stuff like this.
This was a very insightful video. Religion will always be around and perhaps it is a part of our programming as humans. Could religious beliefs somehow link to counsciousness? I do not know.
"Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life." ~ Albert Einstein
"The fanatical atheist are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creature who...in their grudge against traditional religion as the 'opium of the masses'....cannot hear the music of the spheres." ~ Albert Einstein
Your hair is gorgeous! But your brain is even more sexy! Keep posting your videos; we enjoy hearing what you have to say.
Personally, I don't really know exactly where I stand on the issue of "organized religion" being the problem, and not just "religion." In a lot of people's minds (and particularly in the East), words like "religion" and "philosophy" or "worldview" are interchangeable. We have to be precise and define exactly what we mean by the words we use.
@TheDispatcherator So, in case you are addressing someone to whom the token "religion" means simply "philosophy", it may be useful to say that the problem isn't "religion" but a certain kind of religion, such as "authoritarian religion." To us atheists, saying "authoritarian religion" is a redundancy, since we define something as a religion only when it reaches a certain level of authoritarianism and demands unreason from its subscribers. But we have to realize that this isn't obvious to all
all that with a cross over her head? / religion is a HUGE problem . it was 1000s of years ago, they killed each other over it, and it is now. i like SANTA better !
Why do you have such a problem with God and religion? Do you have a Misogyny problem? Did you have a bad relationship with your father? So far, all you have done is sponge off of everyone. Your food, heat, clothing,etc. You can't find your own ass with two hands, a flashlight and a road map. Someone who knows nothing about what they are criticizing feels his opinion is just as valid as someone who knows something. Shut up kid and grow up. You're a moron.
@miket1m Nidoking’s most prominent feature is its large, pointed, venomous horn which it uses extensively for battling purposes. Nidoking’s ears have small pointed extensions on the tips, and the insides of its round ears are green-colored. Nidoking have five teeth on each side of their lower jaw, the fifth protruding out of the jaw and thus visible when its mouth is closed. Nidoking’s eyes are shaped like scalene triangles, and there is fur growing off the bottom of its jaw.
@ZJemptv Thats basically what the majority of your videos are. Meaningless. So I'm not surprised by your reply. Open your mind and take a look around you. You have a long way to go. Do some critical thinking.
No, he just ignored you because you're only offering up ad hominems without giving an actual argument. All you did was insult him and offer straw-man representations of his life. Do you expect him to react seriously to such behavior? Childish behavior gets a childish response.
You're lucky I'm even taking the time to explain this to you, because currently you're the laughing stock of this page.
@TheDispatcherator Why would you think I'm a hateful bigot? Because I disagree with her position? What religion is she talking about? It can't be Christianity. You're going to judge the whole religion of Christianity based on a few bad people? How stupid is that? Who is really the bigot here?
@miket1m shes aithiest i understand im sure me and him dont have same point of view but y spend 2 hours of a day at church that would suck and has anyone seen this *god* i havent not once he has never gave me a well what u would call *sighn* and wttf is hell i am not gonna belive that i can go to hell my watching porn marying another dude socking that dick who hurt my gf no i am not gonna stoop to that bull crap i understand u need a belif i dont please dont hate just chill out
There is proof for God. The Laws of Logic are proof. There are over 300 proofs offered, as a matter of fact. What does atheism have? Nothing. For one to say there is no God, one would have to have complete and absolute knowledge of the entire universe (omniscience). For one to say there is no sufficient evidence, necessitates that one would have to have seen all the evidence in the world. No one has attained this, otherwise, they would be God.
So how do you know there is no God? You don't. Your position illogical, is based on nothing but simple abstract possibility, and is 100% intellectually indefensible.
@miket1m The problem of religion: It's an oppressive, irrational way of thinking that damages the human psyche. It's often the direct cause of social harm, and individual harm. It's a rampant, infectious virus of the mind. Tell me, why did you reject the other religious scriptures, such as the Koran?
Everything else you've said has been a non-sequitur, and therefore doesn't deserve responding to.
One could have a problem with 'God' and religion for many reasons. Among them, the fact that if not for religion, people would not be burning witches, hanging gays, stoning adulterers, or pushing for the teaching of creationism in classrooms. But, no, Zinnia's disdain for religion is totally irrational and not based in reality.
@colourfulwithaU They hung and burned people who they though were witches, like 400 years ago. Lets see, when did the church hang a gay guy? Mmmm, don't ever remember hearing about that. Islam stones people. Why can't creationism be taught in schools? The hypothesis theory of evolution (which isn't really science at all) is. Her whole mind think is not based in reality. Feels guilty probably about being gay.
Also, if not for 'God', people would not be going to places in Africa, which is overpopulated/underresourced, and where HIV is rampant, to threaten people with Hell, should they use condoms - which is as close to genocide as you can get.
@miket1m Ok, How about this for growing up. GROW UP and take responsibility for your own actions. Be accountable. Forget about relying on a story, and the rules presented therein. How about just acting on what is right in your consciousness as opposed to acting according to a set of "commandments". Sir or madam, you are the one that needs to grow up and finally stop looking up to your "father" Grow up and accept responsibility for your own actions.
@mlomenzo And what set of standards are you using to judge what is wrong and what is right? If you don't have an objective standard of morality by which you can determine whats right or wrong, then what gives you the right to make moral judgments on Nazi Germany or the God of the Bible?
@miket1m I could pretty much rest my case here considering the fact that you started your argument mentioning the extreme case of Nazi Germany. But I will entertain this for a little longer. I know internally if something I am doing is right or wrong. I know that the crusades were wrong. How many people were killed in the name of god there. How about the Salem witch hunt. If people would let go of these silly religious differences and actually practice the principles, less people would die.
damn it - I already said on another video that you are not intelligent enough to disprove anything - you are like reading off some sort of spreadsheet and the very fact your on you-tube shows you DON'T KNOW NUTTIN and you possibly don't have a boyfriend at all -
you don't know anything!!!!!! - stop reading books written by morons in their 20s
When Christians try to shrug off the evils and misdeeds of Christianity and Christians by disavowing them as not being REAL Christians (or whatever the lame excuse), I just reply "Christianity is as Christianity does." Even the KKK would be living up to its declared Christian principles if they could get by with disavowing every member who acted hatefully.
Your fucking ugly u deserve to die i would kill you if i met u irl u look like a tranny and ur voice is fucked up fucking gay faggot have fun living a lonly life and hope you burn in fucking hell
@Paintball111223. We can see that you're a troll, because of how you contradict yourself. On the one hand, you seem to believe hell is real, given that you wish people who are obviously better than you to go there. On the other hand, if you believed hell was real, you would try to contain your evil nature. So which is it? You can't have it both ways.
As long as the religious believe atheists are a threat to their religion there will always be conflict. When in reality it is the other religions that are the biggest threat to them because they believe in another deity. It's like hating a flower because it doesn't believe in a god. We have enough problems in this world, and religion just adds more to it.
@redgirlinbluedresses Why is ZJemptv's gender identity at all relevant? I seriously doubt you'll ever need to, or be in a position to know the answer.
a) God is God and that HE gave us FREE WILL so that we could make our OWN individual choices in life so that HE could judge us later
or
b) hat YOU are GOD and YOU have the ability to Control (regulate) others "for their own good" and Redistribute the fruits of their labors BY FORCE thus enslaving them to YOUR WILL.
Religious Authoritarians think they ARE Gods.
As YOU judge, so will YOU BE JUDGED!
People must be FREE to make their OWN decisions and be judged BY GOD!
This epitomises the sort of athiesm I hate. Not that I shall extend this notion of one arrogant girl onto all athiests I meet and thus dismiss them all, reasonable ones included; that would be silly, wouldn't it? That would be dismissing a lot of good for no reason.
I could say I believe in gay marriage, liberalism and socialism, and have an understanding of physics all while being religious. But how could my "untrained mind" cope with such concepts, if I can't even grasp reason and ethics?
The real, larger danger posed by religion is the encouragement and dependence on confirmation bias. Adherents systematically look for confirmation of their religious beliefs, and that behavior pattern then flows over into other areas - political, environmental, etc.
and people like you are the reason everyone who hates religion hates it. Are you honestly stupid enough to think that anyone will take you seriously when you talk like a derogatory moron?
@ItZzTaZ "weird ass faggot bitch" is very mean. Why are you so upset at this vlogger dressing and decorating like a stereotypical woman? Is a message's value dictated by the quality of a speaker? If you began watching this because of sexual attraction, and after realizing that ZJ wasn't what you intended to fantasize about, rather than taking it out on the vlogger, in the future you should leave and keep your own observatory weaknesses to yourself.
@davidthecook I think you got that one figured out. Thats why ZJ is good because he looks at the stereo types and then beyond the normatively accepted and says we should not only wear their shoes but their clothes too to understand how our accepted roles define us and enslave us.
@ItZzTaZ We all want to thank you for taking time away from your busy schedule offering services behind the truck stop glory hole to show us such scintillating wit.
@ItZzTaZ The subject is you're a fucking closet case who shouts homophobic bullshit. You continue, my point is proved. Isn't you 10 minute break at the glory hole about up? Time for you to get back to work, Mary.
Well, you can start by explaining to me why you feel the nee to say hateful shit like that:
"Shut the fuck up you weird ass faggot bitch. If your born a boy or girl, keep it like that. This bitch is a queer!!!!!"
Statements like that exacerbate social conflicts and incite violence against others. They also reveal a very deep seated problem with your own feelings about sexuality. So tell me, why do you have to say this stuff?
I have been a fan of yours for a while now, and recently I decided to sit down and watch all your videos in order. I'm still making my way through them, but I'm learning a lot. Even before I started to do this, you've been opening my eyes about a lot of things.
I just wanted to say that you've helped me grow up a lot. You've enlightened and inspired me.
Thank you for being you, an intelligent, respectable person, and thank you for making your videos :)
Believing in a god is not inherently harmful (besides, of course to seeking truth) its the social stigma people add to their belief that become dangerous. If believing in a divine that created the world is all that there is, vanilla, but safe. However, when you start adding your own particular values to said god, it becomes dangerous. Simple as adding "God says be kind to your brethren" can be dangerous. I never question that you believe in god, its what your god says to you i will question.
h geez more " blame an individual who may or may not be affiliated with x group because they share a single trait in common" Here lets use that same logic in another case. I am white so i could potentially join the KKK, therefore all they do can be blamed on me. Um no. It would be nice to be held responsible for crimes i actually commited not for crimes commited by someone only resembling me in the loosest sense possible.
I'm not sure why the individual states aren't holding pedo priests singly and individually legally responsible for what they've both done *and* known about and withheld given that in most states, the church runs schools, making them part of the state educational system. Most state educational systems require that all employees accept mandatory reporter responsibility and not reporting known or observed child abuse in an educational setting can be felonious depending on the severity of the abuse.
Pretty much all I've thought regarding the whole "it's only the organized part" argument is stated in this video but far better articulated than I can muster. I think a good starting point though would be to stop giving these organizations such a free ride. I.e. stop letting churches be tax free.
Which reminds me of a time someone said to me that would cut off a lot of helpful charities... To which I essentially facepalmed - though from what I recall I didn't handle the situation so well.
Dogma- Holding a world view as fact (Christian, Muslim, Libertarian, Liberal, conservative, democrat, republican. If you hold any world view as fact and are willing to fight and defend that view at all cost then your dogmatic, atheist can be dogmatic as well as religious people.
Organized crime is just a greater more sinister problem.
I don't think anyone has a problem with organisations (well maybe some crackpot conservatives do shouting leftwing-commie-socialists), but when bad ideas get organized the get worse. One lunatic is bad, a bunch of lunatics with weapons are worse.
"Simply being among a number of people who share your beliefs can discourage critical examination.." Does this not apply to atheism as well? I am not trying to detract from atheism, as I see it as a perfectly valid belief structure. However, I have seen atheists do exactly what you claim religions, even those without structure, are guilty of.
For example: People are coming to your videos (like going to church) to hear you preach anti religious belief, but this is still religious practice.
Good Vid Zinnia. I like this vid because it you are highlighting an important distinction and important similarity about Organized and Non-Organized Religions. I never heard anyone put it that way before, right on.
"It's not the religion that's the problem, it's the people."
wrong, it's the religion that's the problem. like any dogmatic system, it requires its followers to stop thinking for themselves and become almost robotic in their faith that the laws must be followed.
I think what people mean by "organized religion" is just believing in God, vs. having dogma. The belief in god itself isn't inherently very harmful. The dogma, not just the institution of the church, is where the terrible harm comes in. When people surrender their rational thinking further and further in order to fit in and conform to the organized dogma.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. You're making some unwarranted leaps of logic here. You rightly point out that group think and dogmatism are to be guarded against; that much isn't even controversial. But you failed to prove that a religious person, at her heart, will ALWAYS be dogmatic and subject to group think, or that religion is inherently dogmatic and coercive. What it sounds like is that you want people to take it on faith that this is so, which makes you an unwitting peddler of dogmatism.
@newsradiohead I think the tale of history is that religion does tend towards dogmatism and violence. It feeds prejudice, misogyny, anti-scientific, non rational attitudes, and continues to be at the core of every attempt to hold back human progress. Societies that exhibit the greatest per capita reports of religious belief are also those most plagued by social ills.
Even IF there be those that are the exception, it doesn't alter those facts enough to change it from bane to boon.
@moopism You can't just keep blaming religion. It's getting stale. The societies that are the most plagued by problems are also those that have been on the receiving end of extreme exploitation and colonization. Violence and dogma? Most violence is committed by 1st world nations against the 3rd world to extract their labor and natural resources and the most virulent dogma is the dogma that everything in the natural world can be transformed into a commodity fit for consumption on the open market.
@newsradiohead I've never said religion is our only problem, but I'm not giving it a pass just because you say so.
Since we're on the subject of commoditization, please note that the most egregious examples come from billionaire American capitalists , who oddly enough espouse a particular flavor of conservative religion.
Blinder yourself all you want, but certain belief systems are at the core of a lot of intractable problems.
@moopism Nobody is giving religion a free pass, at least religion in its conservative, American incarnation. But everyone with a brain and a conscience can see that it is wrong. On that other hand, that doesn't make the new atheists right. Your statement that religion has a lot of intractable problems might be correct, but that doesn't mean that, say, science, something that new atheists tout as the means to liberation, doesn't also have its inherent problems. Science makes our lives better...
@newsradiohead If you find the discussion of religion tedious, the by all means exclude yourself from the conversation. I will not however, have someone tell me I have no right to address known ills in my society because you don't want to further sully your ears.
Telling me I have no right to address an ill unless I would address ALL ills is ridiculous. The topic here is the ill of religion, and I chose to confine myself to that. If you're so sick of hearing it, you should leave.
@moopism Uhhh... I never said that you had no right participate in this debate. I just said that the "blame religion for absolutely everything" angle is getting stale. The world is much more complex than that, and you would do best to stay away from such cleches. Like I said, there is a very dangerous strain of religious fundamentalism that is dogmatic and coercive, and nobody is excusing that. But to make this fundamentalist strain synonymous with all religions is just empirically wrong. (You..
@moopism ..new atheists like empiricism, right?) There are a lot of forms of religion, like Tibetan Buddhism or liberation theology, or indeed primitive Christianity, that developed as a method to resist authority. ZJ saying that all religious people carry within them the seeds of dogmatism and authoritarianism is, like I said, empirically and demonstrably incorrect. Chris Hedges and Dr. James Cone are good examples of what a social justice Christian looks like. I suggest you research their work
@newsradiohead Religion is based in myths and inadequate understandings of the world that stem from primitive times in history. The main flaw in the current ones is tat they lack relevance to the truths empiricism has demonstrated.
In terms of the discussion at hand, the crux isn't whether or not man has religious impulses, but whether religion can grow along with man. So far, it hasn't, and in that lay the seeds of dogmatism.
@moopism But you're wrong. You're empirically wrong. Religion has been used to underpin authoritarianism and dogmatism, but it also has evolved over time. Like I said, there IS a dissident religious tradition that has always existed, that even exists today in the form of liberation theology, Tibetan Buddhism, black theology, neo-Augustinian thought, and social justice Christianity. If you can't accept that religion indeed changes over time, then you are demonstrating a dogmatic mentality.
@CBoyd101 Hehe, thanks. All I'm doing is channeling the spirit of Chris Hedges' "I don't believe in atheists". It's really the definitive anti-new atheist book.
@moopism Second, I don't understand why or how scientific empiricism relates in any way whatsoever to moral and ethical systems, which religion, at its best, provides. I mean, we don't have a unified theory of the universe, yet we are faced with difficult moral choices all the time. Religion was developed as a response to these imperatives. Did religions always come up with the right answers? No, certainly not. But that's not the issue. The issue is that moral decisions can be made w/o science.
@newsradiohead How's this for starters; there are researchers that are finding aspects of moral behavior in animals, and that such represents evolutionary adaptation within social species.
So my question to you is not if we need a religion per se to provide a moral foundation, but how ones patently based in lies and fantasies can ever really hope to. Dogmatism in my mind comes from the impulse of current religions to avoid evolving. That is the crux. Joseph Campbell said as much.
@moopism I never said atheists or non-religious people couldn't make moral decisions. Even during the fervently religious early modern England, Francis Bacon discussed the heroic Romans who were atheists. More to the point, religion isn't a "lie" when people learn of their religious heritage, mull it over, argue over it, and in doing so, renew their religious narratives and traditions in order to meet and speak to their needs and personal and communal experiences. How is this a "lie"?
@newsradiohead Scientific empiricism relates in that it has proven to be the most reliable method to discover reality. A religion not based in reality is useless- that's how we got to where we are now. Religion as a cosmology and guide CANNOT ignore the facts, and the ones we have now we've outgrown because our base of factual knowledge has grown. If we are to move forward, it can't be by dragging the useless myths of the past with us. We need a new story.
@moopism Science doesn't tell a "story" in the same way religion does. Science gives us formal paradigms that rely on empirical evidence to give a narrative of 'how the world works.' It gives us facts, but doesn't teach us about moral imperatives. A "proof" of religion that focuses on a certain cosmological justification, like the Creationists do, will inevitably fail, because religion was never meant to explain how the world works, only what gives life meaning and how moral people should behave
@moopism You say, "If we are to move forward, it can't be by dragging the useless myths of the past with us. We need a new story." What sort of new story do you propose?
@newsradiohead A good start would be one that doesn't include violence, discrimination, or a denial of the facts that are discovered. Something that doesn't require lies and fictional characters, or threats of eternal punishment.
Something that celebrates our lives as part of the earth instead of exploiters trashing it and taking advantage of each other waiting for our sky daddy to come back and burn it all to charcoal....
@moopism ... but it also allows people to exploit the environment and kill one another more easily. The 'intractable problems' you point to wouldn't be rooted out of people if religion were to disappear, just as people were cruel, ignorant and inhumane before the advent of modern science. These problems seem inherent and constitutional to people themselves.
Anyway social pressure happens everywhere not only in religion
One obvious example, in america, is breast enlargements
Sadly though people that fall for this kind of pressure are very commonly lacking in intelligence to begin with so you can't really do anything about it atm.
Telling what's wrong and right wouldn't compute for them...
Screening for low intelligence in fetuses would be a start...
You sound like a bloke.
xxniubixx 42 minutes ago
In the words of Homer Simpson.... NEEEEEEERD!
xxniubixx 2 hours ago
@xxniubixx Only ignorants and stupids call others "nerds"... oh, and lazy people...
DocStrange0123 1 hour ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@DocStrange0123 NEEEEEEERD!
xxniubixx 52 minutes ago
Nice Adam's apple
RunsLikeaNose 1 day ago
non Judeo/Christian/Islamic religions tend to be less suppressive and more tolerant. the less organized the better HAIL ERIS!
ALL HAIL DISCORDIA!
moldrad 4 days ago
@moldrad Islamic? Less suppressive and more tolerant? "The less organized? What the hell are you talking about?
miket1m 2 days ago
@miket1m I meant Wiccan, OTO, THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE), church of sub-genius, and even Scientology (though they have a different set of problems) What do you mean by Islamic? They're as bad as bible followers on the average.
moldrad 1 day ago
So you say That religion itself is the cause of Lets say Chili abuse within church (its just an example), i think its wrong, can you point out ONE part in the bible Where it said That children should be harmed ?, well, on the other hand, many atheists are pro abortion up untill 8 months after fertilisation, talking About child abuse... ?, and do you know the reason why hitler did research on genome science ?, because he wantend to create a perfect spiecies, after hè read Darwins book, he killen
XcodeMod 1 week ago
@XcodeMod Numbers 31:17-18
17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man
Proverbs 23: 13
13 Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
Deut 21:18-21
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him -- 21 Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death.
moldrad 1 day ago
lol about the nidoking
Karsynable 1 week ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Your understanding of why people attend church is rather narrow, and is spoken like someone who never believed, or hasn't gone in quite some time. I certainly didn't start going to be "like minded" with anybody. Had I not, I'd still be the type of person to subscribe to stuff like this.
RASVW 1 week ago
@RASVW Tell us, why do you attend church? Your argument are currently unsubstantiated, acting as mere assertions thus far.
RatherCynical 1 week ago
This was a very insightful video. Religion will always be around and perhaps it is a part of our programming as humans. Could religious beliefs somehow link to counsciousness? I do not know.
ONZeroLess 1 week ago
"Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life." ~ Albert Einstein
miket1m 1 week ago
"The fanatical atheist are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creature who...in their grudge against traditional religion as the 'opium of the masses'....cannot hear the music of the spheres." ~ Albert Einstein
miket1m 1 week ago
Thanks for another great video!
Zen Shawn Dean
zengalileo 1 week ago
Your hair is gorgeous! But your brain is even more sexy! Keep posting your videos; we enjoy hearing what you have to say.
Personally, I don't really know exactly where I stand on the issue of "organized religion" being the problem, and not just "religion." In a lot of people's minds (and particularly in the East), words like "religion" and "philosophy" or "worldview" are interchangeable. We have to be precise and define exactly what we mean by the words we use.
TheDispatcherator 2 weeks ago
@TheDispatcherator So, in case you are addressing someone to whom the token "religion" means simply "philosophy", it may be useful to say that the problem isn't "religion" but a certain kind of religion, such as "authoritarian religion." To us atheists, saying "authoritarian religion" is a redundancy, since we define something as a religion only when it reaches a certain level of authoritarianism and demands unreason from its subscribers. But we have to realize that this isn't obvious to all
TheDispatcherator 2 weeks ago
Sodomites like you are the problem, not religion. Most sodomites are also child molesters.
Bergkristall 2 weeks ago
@Bergkristall i dunno, a lot of priests in your camp are child molesters.
MrCalmlikeaBomb 2 weeks ago
@Bergkristall Not everyone who takes it up the ass is a pedophile. Some of us prefer farm animals.
omegawhitedog 1 week ago
all that with a cross over her head? / religion is a HUGE problem . it was 1000s of years ago, they killed each other over it, and it is now. i like SANTA better !
911review 2 weeks ago
Why do you have such a problem with God and religion? Do you have a Misogyny problem? Did you have a bad relationship with your father? So far, all you have done is sponge off of everyone. Your food, heat, clothing,etc. You can't find your own ass with two hands, a flashlight and a road map. Someone who knows nothing about what they are criticizing feels his opinion is just as valid as someone who knows something. Shut up kid and grow up. You're a moron.
miket1m 2 weeks ago
@miket1m Nidoking’s most prominent feature is its large, pointed, venomous horn which it uses extensively for battling purposes. Nidoking’s ears have small pointed extensions on the tips, and the insides of its round ears are green-colored. Nidoking have five teeth on each side of their lower jaw, the fifth protruding out of the jaw and thus visible when its mouth is closed. Nidoking’s eyes are shaped like scalene triangles, and there is fur growing off the bottom of its jaw.
ZJemptv 2 weeks ago 10
@ZJemptv You sir are true queer for bringing in pokemon into this...
ItZzTaZ 2 weeks ago
@ZJemptv Thats basically what the majority of your videos are. Meaningless. So I'm not surprised by your reply. Open your mind and take a look around you. You have a long way to go. Do some critical thinking.
miket1m 1 week ago
@miket1m
No, he just ignored you because you're only offering up ad hominems without giving an actual argument. All you did was insult him and offer straw-man representations of his life. Do you expect him to react seriously to such behavior? Childish behavior gets a childish response.
You're lucky I'm even taking the time to explain this to you, because currently you're the laughing stock of this page.
Gezab 1 week ago
@Gezab Who are you moron, his official spokes person?
miket1m 1 week ago
@miket1m the irony of your allegations is amusing. Do it more for our amusement.
RatherCynical 1 week ago
@RatherCynical Are there such things as Objective Morals? If so, how to you account for their existence?
miket1m 3 days ago
@ZJemptv that was fucking awesome
foraminutethere23 1 week ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@miket1m "Why do you have such a problem with God and religion? Do you have a Misogyny problem? Did you have a bad relationship with your father? "
Why do you have a problem acknowledging that rational people don't like their societies being poisoned by people who follow bronze age fairy tales?
Why do you need to assume there is something wrong with someone different than you who doesn't base their life on your alleged values?
moopism 2 weeks ago
@miket1m Are you a hateful bigot. You shut up and grow up.
TheDispatcherator 2 weeks ago
@TheDispatcherator Why would you think I'm a hateful bigot? Because I disagree with her position? What religion is she talking about? It can't be Christianity. You're going to judge the whole religion of Christianity based on a few bad people? How stupid is that? Who is really the bigot here?
miket1m 1 week ago
@miket1m shes aithiest i understand im sure me and him dont have same point of view but y spend 2 hours of a day at church that would suck and has anyone seen this *god* i havent not once he has never gave me a well what u would call *sighn* and wttf is hell i am not gonna belive that i can go to hell my watching porn marying another dude socking that dick who hurt my gf no i am not gonna stoop to that bull crap i understand u need a belif i dont please dont hate just chill out
FunnyFreakyLosers 1 week ago
@FunnyFreakyLosers
1.
There is proof for God. The Laws of Logic are proof. There are over 300 proofs offered, as a matter of fact. What does atheism have? Nothing. For one to say there is no God, one would have to have complete and absolute knowledge of the entire universe (omniscience). For one to say there is no sufficient evidence, necessitates that one would have to have seen all the evidence in the world. No one has attained this, otherwise, they would be God.
miket1m 1 week ago
@FunnyFreakyLosers
2.
So how do you know there is no God? You don't. Your position illogical, is based on nothing but simple abstract possibility, and is 100% intellectually indefensible.
miket1m 1 week ago
@miket1m The problem of religion: It's an oppressive, irrational way of thinking that damages the human psyche. It's often the direct cause of social harm, and individual harm. It's a rampant, infectious virus of the mind. Tell me, why did you reject the other religious scriptures, such as the Koran?
Everything else you've said has been a non-sequitur, and therefore doesn't deserve responding to.
RatherCynical 1 week ago
@miket1m
One could have a problem with 'God' and religion for many reasons. Among them, the fact that if not for religion, people would not be burning witches, hanging gays, stoning adulterers, or pushing for the teaching of creationism in classrooms. But, no, Zinnia's disdain for religion is totally irrational and not based in reality.
colourfulwithaU 1 week ago
@colourfulwithaU Negate religion all day long. Still doesn't disprove God's existence.
miket1m 3 days ago
@colourfulwithaU They hung and burned people who they though were witches, like 400 years ago. Lets see, when did the church hang a gay guy? Mmmm, don't ever remember hearing about that. Islam stones people. Why can't creationism be taught in schools? The hypothesis theory of evolution (which isn't really science at all) is. Her whole mind think is not based in reality. Feels guilty probably about being gay.
miket1m 2 days ago
@miket1m
Also, if not for 'God', people would not be going to places in Africa, which is overpopulated/underresourced, and where HIV is rampant, to threaten people with Hell, should they use condoms - which is as close to genocide as you can get.
No, religion isn't a problem in the world at all.
colourfulwithaU 1 week ago
@colourfulwithaU What century are you living in? Hahaha. You have to be a child. How old are you?
miket1m 2 days ago
@miket1m 3 questions plus 2 insults are a bit much. Get to your point and quit being insulting.
drasticUSA 5 days ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@miket1m Ok, How about this for growing up. GROW UP and take responsibility for your own actions. Be accountable. Forget about relying on a story, and the rules presented therein. How about just acting on what is right in your consciousness as opposed to acting according to a set of "commandments". Sir or madam, you are the one that needs to grow up and finally stop looking up to your "father" Grow up and accept responsibility for your own actions.
mlomenzo 2 days ago
@mlomenzo And what set of standards are you using to judge what is wrong and what is right? If you don't have an objective standard of morality by which you can determine whats right or wrong, then what gives you the right to make moral judgments on Nazi Germany or the God of the Bible?
miket1m 2 days ago
@miket1m I could pretty much rest my case here considering the fact that you started your argument mentioning the extreme case of Nazi Germany. But I will entertain this for a little longer. I know internally if something I am doing is right or wrong. I know that the crusades were wrong. How many people were killed in the name of god there. How about the Salem witch hunt. If people would let go of these silly religious differences and actually practice the principles, less people would die.
mlomenzo 1 day ago
I go to cyber school, and I must say I feel like I am in there when I watch this.
idunnoproductionzz 2 weeks ago
damn it - I already said on another video that you are not intelligent enough to disprove anything - you are like reading off some sort of spreadsheet and the very fact your on you-tube shows you DON'T KNOW NUTTIN and you possibly don't have a boyfriend at all -
you don't know anything!!!!!! - stop reading books written by morons in their 20s
heyman4885 2 weeks ago
@heyman4885 Instead we should read comments by morons who are 15?
moopism 2 weeks ago
@heyman4885 Yeah, the fact that she probably doesn't have a boyfriend totally invalidates her argument.
omegawhitedog 1 week ago
Shut up meg.
andyk516 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
ok so your a guy. but you put on lipstick and earrings and women's cloths.... you weird bro.
aroy2883 2 weeks ago
Is he gay? Who knows. Sometimes, I wear my fiance's clothes. Does that make me gay? She doesn't think so. :P
Also, this video's kind of funny. There's a lesbian couple at my catholic church. Also, there's a cross in the background in this vid. :P
Just saying...
TheBlackestCast 2 weeks ago
id tap that
jessebobb123 2 weeks ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Looks like a girl, but sounds like Agent Smith from The Matrix......Noooooo!!! I wish I'd taken the blue pill now....
awanniexx 2 weeks ago
Looks like a girl, but sounds like Agent Smith from The Matrix......Noooooo!!! I wish I'd taken the blue pill now....
awanniexx 2 weeks ago
The best thing that ever happened to religion is that it has had to exist in not only republics but republics that are also legally secular.
SatchmoSings 2 weeks ago
kill it with fire!
KaystahG 2 weeks ago
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buddy85442 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
When Christians try to shrug off the evils and misdeeds of Christianity and Christians by disavowing them as not being REAL Christians (or whatever the lame excuse), I just reply "Christianity is as Christianity does." Even the KKK would be living up to its declared Christian principles if they could get by with disavowing every member who acted hatefully.
ApplyUrBrain 2 weeks ago
Your fucking ugly u deserve to die i would kill you if i met u irl u look like a tranny and ur voice is fucked up fucking gay faggot have fun living a lonly life and hope you burn in fucking hell
Paintball111223 2 weeks ago
@Paintball111223 So gangsta
ccricers 2 weeks ago
@Paintball111223. We can see that you're a troll, because of how you contradict yourself. On the one hand, you seem to believe hell is real, given that you wish people who are obviously better than you to go there. On the other hand, if you believed hell was real, you would try to contain your evil nature. So which is it? You can't have it both ways.
ApplyUrBrain 2 weeks ago
As long as the religious believe atheists are a threat to their religion there will always be conflict. When in reality it is the other religions that are the biggest threat to them because they believe in another deity. It's like hating a flower because it doesn't believe in a god. We have enough problems in this world, and religion just adds more to it.
realigiousrayne 2 weeks ago
Is this a boy or a girl ? Is he gay
xConstaBoy 2 weeks ago
@xConstaBoy What a question ... "Is he gay", well, obviously, if he's dressed as a girl and has makeup, do you think he's gay ? DUUHH
iRetox1 2 weeks ago
@xConstaBoy Either she is a transgendered woman or he is a transvestite. Either way, I couldn't tell you what his/her sexual orientation is.
redgirlinbluedresses 2 weeks ago
@redgirlinbluedresses Why is ZJemptv's gender identity at all relevant? I seriously doubt you'll ever need to, or be in a position to know the answer.
Kailoa36 2 weeks ago
@Kailoa36 Calm down. It's not relevant and I honestly don't care. I was just answering that guy's question. Don't get touchy about it.
redgirlinbluedresses 2 weeks ago
GAY
geekamails 2 weeks ago
Love you, zj !
Btw, there is a cross over your head lol
dificulttocure 2 weeks ago
it has an adams apple
ItzJitterz 2 weeks ago
You're reading off a computer you dickhead
WickyWiggstaz 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@WickyWiggstaz You don't need lightning to strike you. He writes everything he says anyway.
saevusx 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
holy crap i was not expecting that voice! im done with youtube now.
shalow123 2 weeks ago
gay
jeremiah848 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
This has been flagged as spam show
You believe:
a) God is God and that HE gave us FREE WILL so that we could make our OWN individual choices in life so that HE could judge us later
or
b) hat YOU are GOD and YOU have the ability to Control (regulate) others "for their own good" and Redistribute the fruits of their labors BY FORCE thus enslaving them to YOUR WILL.
Religious Authoritarians think they ARE Gods.
As YOU judge, so will YOU BE JUDGED!
People must be FREE to make their OWN decisions and be judged BY GOD!
yakyakyak69 2 weeks ago
atheism & faggotry is not the problem. Errors in thinking is.
GetRealHoustonOdessa 2 weeks ago
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@GetRealHoustonOdessa "atheism & faggotry is not the problem. Errors in thinking is. "
You mean the kind of error wherein myths are mistaken for truth and invisible friends for real individuals?
moopism 2 weeks ago
This epitomises the sort of athiesm I hate. Not that I shall extend this notion of one arrogant girl onto all athiests I meet and thus dismiss them all, reasonable ones included; that would be silly, wouldn't it? That would be dismissing a lot of good for no reason.
I could say I believe in gay marriage, liberalism and socialism, and have an understanding of physics all while being religious. But how could my "untrained mind" cope with such concepts, if I can't even grasp reason and ethics?
Globlsplod 2 weeks ago
The real, larger danger posed by religion is the encouragement and dependence on confirmation bias. Adherents systematically look for confirmation of their religious beliefs, and that behavior pattern then flows over into other areas - political, environmental, etc.
jagmarz 2 weeks ago
You are a humiliation to human kind
DmitriRussian 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Oh shit, I thought it was a girl.
Sharsuils 2 weeks ago
@Sharsuils It is an "it". It has errors in thinking and is acting out.
GetRealHoustonOdessa 2 weeks ago
@GetRealHoustonOdessa What are you, fuckwad?
moopism 2 weeks ago
Are you transgendered?? I don't mean it in a bad way but I was just wondering.
nc97116 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Love your posts! Exposing children to religion IS child abuse.
qwaqwa1960 2 weeks ago
think of religion as someone who's insane:
So long as they're not hurting anyone what wrong with just letting them live in their delusions?
1C9J9S5 2 weeks ago
Shut the fuck up you weird ass faggot bitch. If your born a boy or girl, keep it like that. This bitch is a queer!!!!!
ItZzTaZ 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@ItZzTaZ
and people like you are the reason everyone who hates religion hates it. Are you honestly stupid enough to think that anyone will take you seriously when you talk like a derogatory moron?
DoinkTonberry 2 weeks ago
@ItZzTaZ "weird ass faggot bitch" is very mean. Why are you so upset at this vlogger dressing and decorating like a stereotypical woman? Is a message's value dictated by the quality of a speaker? If you began watching this because of sexual attraction, and after realizing that ZJ wasn't what you intended to fantasize about, rather than taking it out on the vlogger, in the future you should leave and keep your own observatory weaknesses to yourself.
davidthecook 2 weeks ago
@davidthecook I think you got that one figured out. Thats why ZJ is good because he looks at the stereo types and then beyond the normatively accepted and says we should not only wear their shoes but their clothes too to understand how our accepted roles define us and enslave us.
JusticeIsWhere 2 weeks ago
@ItZzTaZ We all want to thank you for taking time away from your busy schedule offering services behind the truck stop glory hole to show us such scintillating wit.
moopism 2 weeks ago
@moopism No problem you fuckin queer!!!!
ItZzTaZ 2 weeks ago
@ItZzTaZ You're such a cute little closet case. I'll bet you have a purty mouth.
moopism 2 weeks ago
@moopism You mad?
ItZzTaZ 2 weeks ago
@ItZzTaZ "You mad?"
You're not worth the energy to feel anything about you.
moopism 2 weeks ago
@moopism Don't lie... If i wasn't bothering you or annoying you then you wouldn't have the need to answer back.. right?
ItZzTaZ 2 weeks ago
@ItZzTaZ Doesn't your mommy pay enough attention to you?
moopism 2 weeks ago
@moopism Why are you changing the subject? Hmmm?
ItZzTaZ 2 weeks ago
@ItZzTaZ The subject is you're a fucking closet case who shouts homophobic bullshit. You continue, my point is proved. Isn't you 10 minute break at the glory hole about up? Time for you to get back to work, Mary.
moopism 2 weeks ago
@moopism I have no idea of what you just said... but all i know is that your an asshole!!!!!
ItZzTaZ 2 weeks ago
@ItZzTaZ "I have no idea of what you just said"
Well I know what you've said, closet case.
moopism 2 weeks ago
@moopism I'm sorry... let's be friends.
ItZzTaZ 1 week ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@ItZzTaZ "I'm sorry... let's be friends."
Well, you can start by explaining to me why you feel the nee to say hateful shit like that:
"Shut the fuck up you weird ass faggot bitch. If your born a boy or girl, keep it like that. This bitch is a queer!!!!!"
Statements like that exacerbate social conflicts and incite violence against others. They also reveal a very deep seated problem with your own feelings about sexuality. So tell me, why do you have to say this stuff?
moopism 1 week ago
@moopism I like your response to this nudnik ItZzTaZ better than mine...I was about one beer away from being as succinct as you. haha thanks.
davidthecook 2 weeks ago
@davidthecook Well, we all know he puts so much energy into the homophobic stuff because he craves a fat up the ass.
moopism 2 weeks ago
ZJ,
I just wanted to tell you thank you.
I have been a fan of yours for a while now, and recently I decided to sit down and watch all your videos in order. I'm still making my way through them, but I'm learning a lot. Even before I started to do this, you've been opening my eyes about a lot of things.
I just wanted to say that you've helped me grow up a lot. You've enlightened and inspired me.
Thank you for being you, an intelligent, respectable person, and thank you for making your videos :)
MzCheshireKat 2 weeks ago
Believing in a god is not inherently harmful (besides, of course to seeking truth) its the social stigma people add to their belief that become dangerous. If believing in a divine that created the world is all that there is, vanilla, but safe. However, when you start adding your own particular values to said god, it becomes dangerous. Simple as adding "God says be kind to your brethren" can be dangerous. I never question that you believe in god, its what your god says to you i will question.
DorianGrayClampitt 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
h geez more " blame an individual who may or may not be affiliated with x group because they share a single trait in common" Here lets use that same logic in another case. I am white so i could potentially join the KKK, therefore all they do can be blamed on me. Um no. It would be nice to be held responsible for crimes i actually commited not for crimes commited by someone only resembling me in the loosest sense possible.
FattyMcFox 2 weeks ago
are you ever going to get some boobs?
DrWGONZALEZ 2 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
GIRL OR BOY?
SteZooNeR 2 weeks ago
it's the female Data from star trek. which is neat. i just wish she was a muthafuckin' believer in miracles.
greatestdayofmylife 3 weeks ago
im probably the last guy to figure out that you doctored your voice on here lol
stormbreak13 3 weeks ago
Goddamn I hate watching these videos because they are always completely perfectly correct!
doutonight 3 weeks ago
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cazopy 3 weeks ago
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cazopy 3 weeks ago
I'm not sure why the individual states aren't holding pedo priests singly and individually legally responsible for what they've both done *and* known about and withheld given that in most states, the church runs schools, making them part of the state educational system. Most state educational systems require that all employees accept mandatory reporter responsibility and not reporting known or observed child abuse in an educational setting can be felonious depending on the severity of the abuse.
zEropoint68 3 weeks ago
@zEropoint68 That's what's happening to Jerry Sandusky and his colleagues.
zEropoint68 3 weeks ago
Religion is the infancy of human knowledge.
welcometoskyvalley 3 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Pretty much all I've thought regarding the whole "it's only the organized part" argument is stated in this video but far better articulated than I can muster. I think a good starting point though would be to stop giving these organizations such a free ride. I.e. stop letting churches be tax free.
Which reminds me of a time someone said to me that would cut off a lot of helpful charities... To which I essentially facepalmed - though from what I recall I didn't handle the situation so well.
ShadeC4 3 weeks ago
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Amashkitotamoes 3 weeks ago
You speak like a pretentious twat.
Outerspacehaze 3 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
I just want to say; It's good to have you back ZJ. You have been sort of quiet on the issues for a while. So, Welcome back!
MrChesstime 3 weeks ago
Dogma- Holding a world view as fact (Christian, Muslim, Libertarian, Liberal, conservative, democrat, republican. If you hold any world view as fact and are willing to fight and defend that view at all cost then your dogmatic, atheist can be dogmatic as well as religious people.
Tethloach1 3 weeks ago
Organized crime isn't the problem crime is.
Organized crime is just a greater more sinister problem.
I don't think anyone has a problem with organisations (well maybe some crackpot conservatives do shouting leftwing-commie-socialists), but when bad ideas get organized the get worse. One lunatic is bad, a bunch of lunatics with weapons are worse.
Ghutom 3 weeks ago
Is that a cross in your background? Can we see it up close?
DepressedAnnnie 3 weeks ago in playlist Uploaded videos
"Simply being among a number of people who share your beliefs can discourage critical examination.." Does this not apply to atheism as well? I am not trying to detract from atheism, as I see it as a perfectly valid belief structure. However, I have seen atheists do exactly what you claim religions, even those without structure, are guilty of.
For example: People are coming to your videos (like going to church) to hear you preach anti religious belief, but this is still religious practice.
CanadianoftheCoast 3 weeks ago
lol you're going to hell.
enuvune 3 weeks ago
Good Vid Zinnia. I like this vid because it you are highlighting an important distinction and important similarity about Organized and Non-Organized Religions. I never heard anyone put it that way before, right on.
Krooksbane 3 weeks ago
Nice crucifix
wfofxfan 3 weeks ago
"It's not the religion that's the problem, it's the people."
wrong, it's the religion that's the problem. like any dogmatic system, it requires its followers to stop thinking for themselves and become almost robotic in their faith that the laws must be followed.
fourbabies1 3 weeks ago 2
I think what people mean by "organized religion" is just believing in God, vs. having dogma. The belief in god itself isn't inherently very harmful. The dogma, not just the institution of the church, is where the terrible harm comes in. When people surrender their rational thinking further and further in order to fit in and conform to the organized dogma.
avatarmn 3 weeks ago
Let's Legalized Gay Married in Texas!!!
kgaafilm 3 weeks ago
Christopherdtownsend go to hell. She has freedom of speech, and she makes a valid point.
kgaafilm 3 weeks ago
Exactly! In fact, it seems to me that "non-denominational churches are often the most radical and bigoted.
Caowinhim 3 weeks ago
fuck you and everything you stand for.
ChristopherDTownsend 3 weeks ago
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. You're making some unwarranted leaps of logic here. You rightly point out that group think and dogmatism are to be guarded against; that much isn't even controversial. But you failed to prove that a religious person, at her heart, will ALWAYS be dogmatic and subject to group think, or that religion is inherently dogmatic and coercive. What it sounds like is that you want people to take it on faith that this is so, which makes you an unwitting peddler of dogmatism.
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead I think the tale of history is that religion does tend towards dogmatism and violence. It feeds prejudice, misogyny, anti-scientific, non rational attitudes, and continues to be at the core of every attempt to hold back human progress. Societies that exhibit the greatest per capita reports of religious belief are also those most plagued by social ills.
Even IF there be those that are the exception, it doesn't alter those facts enough to change it from bane to boon.
moopism 3 weeks ago
@moopism You can't just keep blaming religion. It's getting stale. The societies that are the most plagued by problems are also those that have been on the receiving end of extreme exploitation and colonization. Violence and dogma? Most violence is committed by 1st world nations against the 3rd world to extract their labor and natural resources and the most virulent dogma is the dogma that everything in the natural world can be transformed into a commodity fit for consumption on the open market.
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead I've never said religion is our only problem, but I'm not giving it a pass just because you say so.
Since we're on the subject of commoditization, please note that the most egregious examples come from billionaire American capitalists , who oddly enough espouse a particular flavor of conservative religion.
Blinder yourself all you want, but certain belief systems are at the core of a lot of intractable problems.
moopism 3 weeks ago
@moopism Nobody is giving religion a free pass, at least religion in its conservative, American incarnation. But everyone with a brain and a conscience can see that it is wrong. On that other hand, that doesn't make the new atheists right. Your statement that religion has a lot of intractable problems might be correct, but that doesn't mean that, say, science, something that new atheists tout as the means to liberation, doesn't also have its inherent problems. Science makes our lives better...
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead If you find the discussion of religion tedious, the by all means exclude yourself from the conversation. I will not however, have someone tell me I have no right to address known ills in my society because you don't want to further sully your ears.
Telling me I have no right to address an ill unless I would address ALL ills is ridiculous. The topic here is the ill of religion, and I chose to confine myself to that. If you're so sick of hearing it, you should leave.
moopism 3 weeks ago
@moopism Uhhh... I never said that you had no right participate in this debate. I just said that the "blame religion for absolutely everything" angle is getting stale. The world is much more complex than that, and you would do best to stay away from such cleches. Like I said, there is a very dangerous strain of religious fundamentalism that is dogmatic and coercive, and nobody is excusing that. But to make this fundamentalist strain synonymous with all religions is just empirically wrong. (You..
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead Personally, I don't blame religion for everything; merely its role as a tool of stupidity.
moopism 3 weeks ago
@moopism ..new atheists like empiricism, right?) There are a lot of forms of religion, like Tibetan Buddhism or liberation theology, or indeed primitive Christianity, that developed as a method to resist authority. ZJ saying that all religious people carry within them the seeds of dogmatism and authoritarianism is, like I said, empirically and demonstrably incorrect. Chris Hedges and Dr. James Cone are good examples of what a social justice Christian looks like. I suggest you research their work
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead Religion is based in myths and inadequate understandings of the world that stem from primitive times in history. The main flaw in the current ones is tat they lack relevance to the truths empiricism has demonstrated.
In terms of the discussion at hand, the crux isn't whether or not man has religious impulses, but whether religion can grow along with man. So far, it hasn't, and in that lay the seeds of dogmatism.
moopism 3 weeks ago
@moopism But you're wrong. You're empirically wrong. Religion has been used to underpin authoritarianism and dogmatism, but it also has evolved over time. Like I said, there IS a dissident religious tradition that has always existed, that even exists today in the form of liberation theology, Tibetan Buddhism, black theology, neo-Augustinian thought, and social justice Christianity. If you can't accept that religion indeed changes over time, then you are demonstrating a dogmatic mentality.
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead There IS intelligent life in this commentary after all! You are absolutely right.
CBoyd101 3 weeks ago
@CBoyd101 Hehe, thanks. All I'm doing is channeling the spirit of Chris Hedges' "I don't believe in atheists". It's really the definitive anti-new atheist book.
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@moopism Second, I don't understand why or how scientific empiricism relates in any way whatsoever to moral and ethical systems, which religion, at its best, provides. I mean, we don't have a unified theory of the universe, yet we are faced with difficult moral choices all the time. Religion was developed as a response to these imperatives. Did religions always come up with the right answers? No, certainly not. But that's not the issue. The issue is that moral decisions can be made w/o science.
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead How's this for starters; there are researchers that are finding aspects of moral behavior in animals, and that such represents evolutionary adaptation within social species.
So my question to you is not if we need a religion per se to provide a moral foundation, but how ones patently based in lies and fantasies can ever really hope to. Dogmatism in my mind comes from the impulse of current religions to avoid evolving. That is the crux. Joseph Campbell said as much.
moopism 3 weeks ago
@moopism I never said atheists or non-religious people couldn't make moral decisions. Even during the fervently religious early modern England, Francis Bacon discussed the heroic Romans who were atheists. More to the point, religion isn't a "lie" when people learn of their religious heritage, mull it over, argue over it, and in doing so, renew their religious narratives and traditions in order to meet and speak to their needs and personal and communal experiences. How is this a "lie"?
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead Scientific empiricism relates in that it has proven to be the most reliable method to discover reality. A religion not based in reality is useless- that's how we got to where we are now. Religion as a cosmology and guide CANNOT ignore the facts, and the ones we have now we've outgrown because our base of factual knowledge has grown. If we are to move forward, it can't be by dragging the useless myths of the past with us. We need a new story.
moopism 3 weeks ago
@moopism Science doesn't tell a "story" in the same way religion does. Science gives us formal paradigms that rely on empirical evidence to give a narrative of 'how the world works.' It gives us facts, but doesn't teach us about moral imperatives. A "proof" of religion that focuses on a certain cosmological justification, like the Creationists do, will inevitably fail, because religion was never meant to explain how the world works, only what gives life meaning and how moral people should behave
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@moopism You say, "If we are to move forward, it can't be by dragging the useless myths of the past with us. We need a new story." What sort of new story do you propose?
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
@newsradiohead A good start would be one that doesn't include violence, discrimination, or a denial of the facts that are discovered. Something that doesn't require lies and fictional characters, or threats of eternal punishment.
Something that celebrates our lives as part of the earth instead of exploiters trashing it and taking advantage of each other waiting for our sky daddy to come back and burn it all to charcoal....
How's that?
moopism 2 weeks ago
@moopism ... but it also allows people to exploit the environment and kill one another more easily. The 'intractable problems' you point to wouldn't be rooted out of people if religion were to disappear, just as people were cruel, ignorant and inhumane before the advent of modern science. These problems seem inherent and constitutional to people themselves.
newsradiohead 3 weeks ago
Zen is the religion of "no religion". -Alan Watts.
Time to progress beyond dualism, Zinnia.
VoxNeruda 3 weeks ago 3
So, so beautiful. <3
SensualSorrow 3 weeks ago
You're pretty. Too bad you were born a dude. -_-
jimmyisgolden 3 weeks ago
does your voice really sound like that
ReaperSquad1 3 weeks ago
T-t-t-tranny
imemmettson 3 weeks ago
Anyway social pressure happens everywhere not only in religion
One obvious example, in america, is breast enlargements
Sadly though people that fall for this kind of pressure are very commonly lacking in intelligence to begin with so you can't really do anything about it atm.
Telling what's wrong and right wouldn't compute for them...
Screening for low intelligence in fetuses would be a start...
labobo 3 weeks ago
You should change the title to
"Organized groups that represent religion isn't the problem, religion is"
labobo 3 weeks ago